Georgia Chamber of Commerce launches a health care access study

Saturday

Oct 31, 2015 at 9:02 PM

The Georgia Chamber has launched a task force to take an in-depth exploration of ways to improve health care access throughout Georgia.

This study will pursue sustainable and fiscally responsible recommendations to address challenges that include the viability of rural health care providers and safety net hospitals, recruitment and retention of medical professionals and the coverage gap that leaves close to 400,000 Georgians uninsured and hundreds of thousands more under-insured.

"Access to high-quality health care ranks high on the priority list of our business community because it matters to our employees. We know that we can't have an economically viable Georgia unless we have a physically healthy Georgia," said chamber President and CEO Chris Clark. "The coverage gap doesn't just affect the uninsured and the providers who care for them. It shifts cost directly to employers who insure their workforce, and it poses an existential threat to rural health care access as well as the stability of critical safety net hospitals."

The Georgia Chamber of Commerce Health and Wellness Committee will oversee the study and any policy recommendations that result. Over the next nine months, the study will execute three phases: economic impact, data collection and analysis, policy option development and finalize recommendations.

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